"Risky Business" - December 11, 2020

[ErikThor]

I haven't been able to participate much as of late and I thought this puzzle was going to win. I had an "aha" moment and it worked. Count me ashore.

[SusieG]

Ashore! A vigorous bike ride cleared my mind. What an amazing puzzle.

[ErikThor]

If you've got 90 minutes to spare, check out Chicago's breakout gig at Tanglewood (be sure to wait for the encore). Summer of 1970. 50 years ago. Geesh, where did the time go?

As a young kid growing up on the south side of Chicago, this was the summer between 8th grade and HS for me and I attended my first live concert. It was at my Parish (St. Rita) teen club which was held in my grammar school's auditorium. The band was TW4. Two years later they changed their name to STYX.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oAoSZ2 ... _4MQvexzcd

I live right near two of the original band members. One currently still playing for them and the other completely despised by the rest of the band.

[Joepickett]

I'm going to need a nudge. I see nothing

[JeanneC]

Got the grid Thursday evening but still pondering the meta. On the other hand, I actually remembered both halves of 17A!

[Cindy N]

And on shore. Had a tough time deciding between two choices from one of the local microbreweries (we have three here) - Sumadat - Orange Dreamsicle IPA 6% ABV 50 IBU and Tan Cans - Mango Habanero Blonde Ale 4.5% ABV 21 IBU. You can check out their other 90 brews (not all available all the time, but every one of them is outstanding). R'Noggin Brewery started by a couple of brothers.

[JAQT]

I made a reference to "Endeavour" the other day. If any of you are fans of Inspector Morse, Lewis and/or Endeavour; check out this site:
https://morseandlewisandendeavour.com/

I will probably catch heat from this (from my Mom at least) but I really didn't enjoy "Inspector Morse" or John Thaw's portrayal in that series.

On the other hand, I thought he was great in "Kavanagh QC" and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire series. Of course, I was predisposed to enjoy any English barrister episode, as a long-time fan of Rumpole of the Bailey (thank you Leo McKern and "she who must be obeyed").

And Shaun Evans in Endeavour, and that entire series, was great, even with the "Morse-tache" in season 6.

-Mike

[EdStrong]

In business this week, ashore!

[escapeartist]

I initially had a quick solve to the Meta that was messy and inelegant but is totally related to this lovely year we call 2020, and by the rules this wrong solution is a very precarious thing to do.

Because it was messy, it clearly was not the right path.

Wondering if this answer makes it into the submissions?

[Olof]

Ashore. More challenging grid than usual, but had inspiration right away to solve the meta. It's a Buffalo Trace neat for me.

[Beth C]

Couldn't solve the meta last night, but the path became clear this morning over my second cup of coffee. Done and done. I'll celebrate tonight with some Weller Antique, neat. Good luck Muggles.

[Tom Shea]

Isaac has missed me for the last few weeks, and his tip jar was getting low.

And, I have no clue on the meta, so I'm at the bar. Even Isaac's martini last night failed to get me off the stool.

[Commodore]

G'day, Isaac.

[Orsys]

Done. some typos in my answers led me astray.

[ImOnToo]

I found the grid pretty easy.
The meta, not so much.

Hit me, Isaac.

[Bob cruise director]

On shore.

Started this evening after work with my "team." (Team = My two 20-something kids. It's the only way I can get them to Zoom with me regularly. They help with the grid, then mostly gab about things "dad" here doesn't understand, while I look for the meta.)

It was not as obvious to us (well, me) as the early solvers indicated. But I was looking at the wrong "hint" in the wrong way, and going down a rabbit hole. Once we (well, I) switched to the correct hint, bingo!

NB: "Bingo" is not intended as a hint in any way. HunterX takes no responsibility for you following it down any rabbit hole you might find. Void where prohibited by law. Your results may vary.

Your forgot another important legal disclaimer "past performance does not guarantee future results"

[HunterX]

Ashore. Even more impressed than usual by the construction. This is hard enough to solve but to retrace the steps Mike Shenk must have gone through to create it - keeping within all the norms of symmetry, balance, reasonable cluing, moderate difficulty, avoiding the obscure - I just don't see how they do it. Hats off.

Further, it's funny how a puzzle seems easy when one of your first rabbits is the right one. The right path always seems obvious in hindsight, but when you're lost it just looks impossible. I'd like to see a graph of how the rated difficulty climbs from Thursday to Sunday!

I'd be interested in that graph too. I keep a (Warning: Geek Alert - Continue reading at your own risk) spreadsheet of all the weekly meta puzzles I've done with various stats and calculations, one of which is the Muggle difficulty rating. Clearly those who solve quickly (I'm looking at you Al Sisti) log on to indicate they are done and rate the meta, which, obviously they found easy. So it usually starts at 1. When I first looked Friday evening, it was 1.5. This morning it was 2. Now it's 2.5. (And I revise the spreadsheet yet again.) I wonder if those who don't solve it don't rate it, thus resulting in a bias towards a lower rating.

Okay, I need to stop drinking coffee and go for a walk or something.

[HunterX]

On shore.

Started this evening after work with my "team." (Team = My two 20-something kids. It's the only way I can get them to Zoom with me regularly. They help with the grid, then mostly gab about things "dad" here doesn't understand, while I look for the meta.)

It was not as obvious to us (well, me) as the early solvers indicated. But I was looking at the wrong "hint" in the wrong way, and going down a rabbit hole. Once we (well, I) switched to the correct hint, bingo!

NB: "Bingo" is not intended as a hint in any way. HunterX takes no responsibility for you following it down any rabbit hole you might find. Void where prohibited by law. Your results may vary.

Your forgot another important legal disclaimer "past performance does not guarantee future results"

So true... So true...

(And thank you for reminding me how many I have to solve to match my previous success streak. )

[Janet P]

Made it to the shore
In time for Bob's noon report!
Back to my laundry...

[Bob cruise director]

Made it to the shore
In time for Bob's noon report!
Back to my laundry...

Just for clarification (and my ego), is my report more or less important than your laundry?